A secure, serverless Next.js and Postgres database deployment designed to bypass the licensing tax of Microsoft Dynamics 365 — with 100% code ownership at handover.
Lock-in profile: High (Azure lock-in, proprietary Power Platform and Dataverse dependency)
In short: ERPStack provides a custom, license-free alternative to Microsoft Dynamics 365. You get 100% data and IP ownership, zero seat-based fees, and a dedicated cloud deployment delivered in weeks.
Vivek Mishra — Founder & Lead Architect, ERPStack
Microsoft Dynamics 365 is priced per user and per application: Sales Professional at $65, Sales Enterprise at $105, Finance at $210 and Business Central Essentials at $80, in US dollars per user per month paid yearly. Add Microsoft Dynamics 365 Dataverse capacity and a partner implementation and the annual figure moves quickly. A custom ERP on Next.js, React, TypeScript and PostgreSQL carries one build cost and no per-application seat, deploys into your own Microsoft Azure or AWS tenancy, and hands over the code, the PostgreSQL schema and the storage.
If your company already runs Microsoft 365 and Entra ID, Microsoft Dynamics 365 inherits identity, Teams and Excel integration you would otherwise build, and it sits natively on Microsoft Azure. Microsoft also sells a Business Central Team Members licence at $8 per user per month for reading data and approving workflows, so the usual "read-only users cost a full seat" complaint does not apply here. Those are genuine advantages and they deserve weighing rather than dismissing.
PostgreSQL with Drizzle ORM in place of Dataverse, so storage is priced as storage. A Next.js, React and TypeScript interface; a REST and GraphQL API; RBAC and SSO against the identity provider you already run; Redis for queues; Terraform and Docker for infrastructure; GitHub Actions for CI/CD deployment pipelines; Sentry and OpenTelemetry Observability for monitoring. Deployed into your own Microsoft Azure or AWS subscription, with the ERP schema and the code handed over.
4 of 4 capabilities shown
| Capability | Custom ERPStack build | Microsoft Dynamics 365 |
|---|---|---|
| API ExtensibilityExtensibility | Native GraphQL and REST API over your own PostgreSQL schema, with Drizzle ORM types | Microsoft Dynamics 365 OData and Web API, with request limits |
| Database AccessData & Ownership | Direct SQL on your own PostgreSQL, plus real-time replication to ClickHouse Analytics Database | Locked behind Microsoft Dynamics 365 Dataverse views |
| UI CustomizationExtensibility | Full React and Tailwind CSS codebase in TypeScript | Model-driven or canvas apps only |
| Multi-Tenant Product You Can ResellOperations | Multi-tenant isolation designed into your own product, for your own customers, on your own PostgreSQL cluster | Microsoft Dynamics 365 is a multi-tenant SaaS you occupy a tenant within; ISV resale requires a separate AppSource path |
On Microsoft Dynamics 365, stacked on the $20,000 - $180,000+ / year base license.
Microsoft entitles Dataverse database, file and log capacity separately. In Microsoft's own worked example a tenant entitled to 100 GB of database and consuming 110 GB is in deficit while holding 200 GB of unused file capacity. Surplus in one pool does not cover a shortfall in another.
On Microsoft Dynamics 365, stacked on the $20,000 - $180,000+ / year base license.
Microsoft documents the default environment as 3 GB of Dataverse database capacity, 3 GB of file capacity and 1 GB of log capacity, with tenant entitlement calculated as base capacity plus per-user licence accruals. Attachments, audit logs and search indexes all draw on it.
Analyze the existing Microsoft Dynamics 365 Dataverse schema, custom entities, and relationships.
Extract data using Azure Data Factory or custom scripts into PostgreSQL with Drizzle ORM.
Map Microsoft Dynamics 365 workflows and business logic into Next.js and TypeScript server logic.
Sync the final delta into PostgreSQL and switch DNS.
Drag the team-size slider to model SaaS licensing spend against a fixed-cost custom build — implementation, hosting, and 3-year TCO update in real time.
Staying on per-seat licensing costs you $4,365 every month at 50 seats — spend that never converts into owned IP.
Yes. Entities, relationships and audit history come out of Dataverse through the Microsoft Dynamics 365 REST API or Azure Data Factory and land in a PostgreSQL schema with Drizzle ORM, designed for your reporting rather than the platform. Budget 2 to 3 weeks for extraction and mapping on a typical mid-size Microsoft Dynamics 365 estate. The part worth costing properly is business logic: Microsoft Dynamics 365 Power Automate flows and plug-ins have to be re-expressed as server-side TypeScript, and that is where the real effort sits.
Not through one number but three. Microsoft entitles Dataverse database, file and log capacity independently, and a Microsoft Dynamics 365 tenant over its database entitlement is in deficit even holding hundreds of gigabytes of unused file capacity. Attachments, Microsoft Dynamics 365 audit logs and search indexes all draw on it. On your own PostgreSQL and AWS object storage the same data is priced as storage rather than as a Microsoft Dynamics 365 entitlement, and cold records archive cheaply.
Only past a certain size, and we will say when it is not. Microsoft Dynamics 365 lists Sales Enterprise at $105 and Finance at $210 per user per month paid yearly, so the crossover depends almost entirely on seat count and how many applications you licence. Under roughly 25 users on a single app, Microsoft Dynamics 365 usually wins outright. Above that, or where several Microsoft Dynamics 365 applications and Dataverse capacity stack up, a one-off PostgreSQL build repays inside 2 to 3 years.
They are different products, and the answer changes the project. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is the ERP — finance, sales, service and operations in one solution at $80 to $110 per user per month — while Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales is the CRM at $65 to $150 per user per month. Replacing the CRM leaves your ledger alone. Replacing Business Central touches the financial close, the audit trail and statutory reporting, which is a different scope, a different risk and a different budget. Teams that scope a "Dynamics replacement" without naming which one price the wrong project.
Companies deep in the Microsoft Azure estate — Entra ID, Teams, Power BI — where Microsoft Dynamics 365 inherits integration for free, and teams needing mostly standard ERP or CRM processes running quickly. The $8 Microsoft Dynamics 365 Team Members licence also removes the usual read-only-seat argument. A custom ERP wins when your operational process is the product, when Dataverse capacity is a recurring surprise, or when certified developers are the bottleneck.
Every figure below was read from the vendor’s own published page on 2 August 2026. Vendor terms change without notice — follow the link and check the number yourself before you decide anything on it. Whatever we could not source that way is not on this page.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales Professional is listed at $65, Sales Enterprise at $105 and Sales Premium at $150 per user per month, paid yearly. These are per-application prices, so one person needing both sales and finance is two Microsoft Dynamics 365 licences.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Essentials is $80 and Premium $110 per user per month paid yearly, and the Team Members licence is $8 — described by Microsoft as limited access to read data, approve workflows and create or update select information.
Behind Microsoft Dynamics 365, Dataverse database, file and log capacity are entitled and enforced separately. Microsoft's own worked example: a tenant entitled to 100 GB of database and consuming 110 GB is in deficit even while holding 200 GB of unused file capacity. A PostgreSQL database has one pool — the disk you provisioned.
Microsoft documents the default environment as 3 GB of Dataverse database capacity, 3 GB of file capacity and 1 GB of log capacity, with tenant entitlement calculated as base capacity plus per-user licence accruals. Attachments, audit logs and search indexes all draw on the same Microsoft Dynamics 365 entitlement.
Microsoft prices Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central — finance, sales, service and operations in one solution — at $80 Essentials, $110 Premium and $8 Team Members per user per month paid yearly, and prices Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales separately at $65 Professional, $105 Enterprise and $150 Premium. They are different applications: replacing one is not replacing the other, and a person who needs both is two licences. A brief that says "replace Dynamics" without naming which one has not been scoped yet.
Microsoft states that "Exporting audit logs isn't currently supported" in Dataverse, and directs you to the Web API or the SDK for .NET to retrieve audit data instead. Microsoft Dynamics 365 audit history also consumes Dataverse log capacity, and large attribute values are capped at 5 KB, or about 5,000 characters. Where a retention obligation covers who changed what, that extraction is code you write yourself before you can leave.
Microsoft Learn — Manage Dataverse auditing (read 15 August 2026)
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